Survival of BRCA1 negative ovarian cancer patients based on family history

Objective. To compare survival of ovarian cancer patients with and without a family history of breast or ovarian cancer who are known to be without mu tations in BRCA1. Methods. Patients with ovarian cancer were tested for germline mutations in BRCA1 by polymerase chain reaction amplification of DNA for single-strand conformation polymorphism and direct sequencing analysis to examine the 22 coding exons of BRCA1 in fresh and archived tumor specimens. Demographic an d survival data were collected for statistical analysis. Survival data were calculated by the method of Kaplan and Meier and compared by the log-rank test. Results. Of the 110 patients tested at our institution, 100 were noted to b e negative for BRCA1 mutations. After exclusion of nonepithelial histologie s, benign tumors, primary peritoneal carcinoma, and incomplete staging, 87 patients remained for analysis, of which 37 demonstrated a family history o f breast or ovarian cancer. The two groups showed similar age at diagnosis, stage, grade, residual disease, and type of chemotherapy. Median actuarial survival was 75 months for those patients with a family history versus 70 months for those without (P=0.73). Evaluation of patients with two or more relatives with breast or ovarian cancer also revealed no differences in sur vival. Conclusions. Family history of breast or ovarian cancer does not affect sur vival of patients with ovarian cancer in the absence of mutations in BRCA1. Previously described differences in survival among patients with BRCA1 mut ations may be more related to genetic factors than to biases introduced by the presence of family history. (C) 2001 Academic Press.